The Ghosts who Wait
by k123
Summary: Sasuke meets an Uchiha that Itachi didn't kill. This does not, however, mean that she is alive.


He is training the first time he sees her. This is really no surprise, considering how he is always training, even in sleep. But if he were sleeping, he

would not have seen her.

She is young, a child, with deep green eyes and straight black hair. She watched him silently, the wind whistling around her, and he can see right

through her.

"Who are you?"

She smiles slightly, lips curving upward with a flash of teeth. "I'm lost," she tells him.

He tightens his grip on his kunai, never mind that it will probably be little help against a ghost. "Why are you here then?"

"Because this place is lost too. Lost in time, lost in memories." She turns, her eyes a little harder. "And it is a place that should stay lost. Leave here,

and let the ghosts rest."

He pants in the silent aftermath of her words, and wants to tell her that she is wrong. It is not he who won't let the ghosts rest, it is the ghosts who

won't let _him_ rest, who spur him on endlessly.

Perhaps she sees something of his answer in his eyes, because her face softens just a little. "It…hurts, to be held onto so strongly." Her green,

depthless eyes stare at him accusingly.

"Who holds onto you, then, that you know this?" His words are purposely cruel, since he knows as well as any that no one holds onto lost ghosts. She

loses whatever softness she had for him, and he shivers as the cold cuts through him, sharp and icy and unforgiving.

"Do you," she asks, "know my name?" He stares at her. How would he know her name? He'd never seen her, never met her, and she certainly wasn't

one of _his_ ghosts.

Her lips curve in that same smile, and for a moment he can see his mother in her face. He stumbles backwards. "You _can't_ be an Uchiha. I know

everyone who died, I fight for them all." But this does not change the fact that her mouth is his mother's and her cheekbones are his uncle's and she

has the slim, slender body all Uchihas have.

"Oh, but I _am_ an Uchiha. I am not surprised, though, that you don't remember my death. It was a few years before your brother's kunai and shuriken

made all these other ghosts join me." She laughs, and it cuts through him, sharper than the wind. He shivers involuntarily. "Did you think that Itachi

was the first to attempt Mangekyo sharingan?" He throws his kunai at her, unthinking, because she has _dared_ to mention **him**, but it passes through her

harmlessly, and then her words reach his ears. His mouth opens, a soundless question. She answers, her voice clear and matter of fact.

"My father," she says, "always had delusions of grandeur. He was convinced that he was more powerful, stronger, than them all." Her lips twist in a

parody of her earlier grin. "He just had trouble convincing the rest of the clan." Her eyes gaze off at something he cannot see, and Sasuke can almost,

_almost_ recall hearing something about this story. Abruptly, those jagged green eyes focus back on him.

"He killed my mother first, you know. And then he waited, waited for his _sharingan_," and it is spat out like it is the filthiest word she has ever spoken,

"but nothing happened. So he tried again with me. I guess he never realized that he was his own most precious person, but then, killing himself

probably would've defeated the whole purpose, huh?" And Sasuke stares at her, horrified, because he is remembering now, remembering this story and

he wonders how he could have forgotten.

"Do you know," she inquires softly, "what happened to him?"

"He, he was put in jail," and now Sasuke is stumbling over his words, because he knows there is something else he is forgetting and a part of him

doesn't want to remember.

"Yes, he was. They hunted him down, and arrested him, the Uchiha police force at their finest. They had my funeral, and only one person was

sincerely sorry I was dead. And then," and her voice is something he wishes he could block out, "there was a missing nin. He was strong, and there

were too many of the family out on other missions to put together a team to capture him. So they decided to let him out, to let him _free_. After all, I was

only a girl, and a girl with green eyes at that. I would never have the sharingan and it was unlikely that my children would have developed it."

Sasuke found it hard to breathe, as she turned those cursed green eyes on him. "Your father led the council that freed him. When they discussed it, the

situation and my death, not one of them mentioned my name. Not one of them remembered it. And you wonder why Itachi killed them all." For the

first time, Sasuke notices how easily she says that name, as if she has said it many times before.

"Did you…did you know **him**," and even though he can't say the name, she understands who he is referring to.

"He was the only one who truly grieved for me. He is the only one who remembers my name. He was my friend when I was alive, you know. When

they decided to free the man who called himself my father, he stole into the jail and killed him in an extremely gruesome and painful way." There is a

great satisfaction on her face as she relates this part of the tale.

"Why are you here, telling me this?"

She looks at him, and her gaze does not cut, does not hurt. "Itachi talked about you. He said we would've made good friends, you and me." A ripple

goes through her, as if she would sigh if she could breathe. "Vengeance and bitterness hold ghosts to this earth strongly, regardless of whether it is the

ghost or the person left behind who feels it," and even though her eyes no longer cause him to bleed, the knowing, pitying look she bestows on him

hurts almost as much. "Let it go. Please." And he turns away from her because when she talks, he can remember his brother, or the person he had

thought was his brother, the person he –

_Loved_.

And he will never achieve his vengeance if he keeps listening to her. So he throws her own words back in her face. "If it hurts so much, then why are

you still here? Why haven't _you_ let go?"

Her answer surprises his. "I have. I am no longer tied here by force, but because I am waiting." His eyes meet hers, bright green and dark black. "No

one deserves to be alone when they die."

And when he understands what she is saying, it makes him angry, angrier than he can remember ever being. Because Itachi _won't _be alone is

death, he'll be with _him, Sasuke,_ and who is this girl to interfere where doesn't belong and isn't needed. Sasuke finally admits to himself that when he

sees his brother dying, he sees himself there, dying next to him.

"He won't die alone if you're not there. It's ok for you to let go." And although he doesn't verbalize his response, it is clear to them both. _Never_. She

opens her mouth to speak again, but then stops and cocks her head.

"Oh," she says, "they are looking for you." In the distance, he can just hear them.

"Sasuke kun, where are you?" "Yeah, bastard, come out, and show yourself!"

The wind dies down a little, and she is becoming steadily more transparent. "Wait," he cries, surprising even himself. "Will I see you again?"

And she looks at him, here green green eyes free from bitterness and hatred. "Your brother was right," she whispers. "We would have been friends."

Then she is gone, and Naruto and Sakura are there, asking him where he's been and why he's late. He looks at Sakura and even though her eyes are

bright and clear and much shallower, he is very thankful she doesn't have straight dark hair. Subsequently, he turns around and punches Naruto,

because that is something he can understand, unlike the ghost girl whose name no one ever told him that waits for his brother and maybe, just maybe,

for him.


End file.
